MTC Announces Guests for 'After Words: To Be or Not To Be' Talk Back Series

Manhattan Theatre Club is pleased to announce guests and dates for After Words, the popular discussion series at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street). The series begins its third season on Saturday, September 20 following the matinee performance of TO BE OR NOT TO BE with J. Hoberman, film critic for The Village Voice, and Foster Hirsch, professor of film at Brooklyn College. The discussion will be moderated by Lisa McNulty, MTC's Associate Director of Artistic Operations.

After Words is part of MTC's continuing effort to deepen and enrich the play-going experience for its audiences. Held after selected Saturday matinees at the Friedman Theatre, this exciting series of talks with writers, cultural critics, journalists, and members of the TO BE OR NOT TO BE cast and creative team provides provocative and illuminating insights into the political, cultural, and artistic contexts of the work MTC produces at the Friedman Theatre.

Future editions of After Words will include:

On Saturday, September 27, After Words will feature James Harvey, author of Romantic Comedy in Hollywood: from Lubitsch to Sturges, TO BE OR NOT TO BE director Casey Nicholaw, and David Shookhoff, MTC's Director of Education.

On Saturday, October 4, After Words will welcome Catherine Sheehy, chair of Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism at Yale School of Drama who teaches a seminar on "American Stage and Screen Comedy," and Lisa McNulty, MTC's Associate Director of Artistic Operations.

For more information on After Words, or to download a podcast of past After Words, please visit: www.ManhattanTheatreClub.com.

BIOGRAPHIES
JAMES HARVEY is a playwright, essayist and critic. He is the author of Romantic Comedy in Hollywood: from Lubitsch to Sturges, and Movie Love in the Fifties. His work has appeared in The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Book Review, Film Comment, The Threepenny Review, Opera News, and Variety. He is a Professor Emeritus in English at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He has taught film at The New School and at University of California, Berkeley, curated film series at the Museum of Modern Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and he appears in the recent Turner Classic Movies documentary, "Cary Grant: A Class Apart." He lives in Brooklyn and is currently writing a book on personality in the movies, to be published by Farrar Straus/Faber and Faber.

FOSTER HIRSCH is Professor of Film at Brooklyn College and the author of 16 books on film and theatre, including Kurt Weill on Stage: from Broadway to Berlin and, most recently, Otto Preminger: The Man Who Would Be King (Knopf). He is a frequent host/moderator at numerous venues including the American Cinematheque, the Harvard Club, the National Arts Club, and Film Forum. He has lectured on film in India, Israel, Dubai, China, New Zealand, England, France, Saudi Arabia, and Germany.

J. HOBERMAN is the senior film critic for The Village Voice, where he's been reviewing movies for over 30 years. He teaches film history at Cooper Union in New York, practical media criticism at NYU, and has been a guest lecturer at Harvard University. Hoberman has published 10 books, including Bridge of Light: Yiddish Film Between Two Worlds, The Red Atlantis: Communist Culture in the Absence of Communism, The Dream Life: Movies, Media, and The Mythology of the Sixties, and Midnight Movies, a collaboration with Chicago Reader film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum.

CATHERINE SHEEHY is Resident Dramaturg of Yale Repertory Theatre and chair of Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism at Yale School of Drama. At Yale she has worked as dramaturg on numerous productions and was co-adaptor of the Yale Rep production of King Stag. Her Pride & Prejudice has been produced at the Asolo Theatre in Florida and at Dallas Theater Center. She teaches seminars in American Stage and Screen Comedy, Restoration and 18th Century British Comedy, Comic Theory, the Collaborative Process, Models of Dramaturgy, and Satire. As a dramaturg she has worked throughout the U.S. and in Ireland. She is also a former associate editor of American Theatre and a former managing editor of Theater magazine.

INFORMATION ABOUT TO BE OR NOT TO BE
Nick Whitby's TO BE OR NOT TO BE, based on the 1942 motion picture To Be or Not To Be, will open on Tuesday, October 14 in a limited engagement at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street).

The production is directed by three-time Tony Awardâ nominee Casey Nicholaw (The Drowsy Chaperone, Monty Python's Spamalot).

The cast features Peter Benson (The Pajama Game), Robert Dorfman (The Drowsy Chaperone), Steve Kazee (Monty Python's Spamalot), Tony Awardâ nominee and Drama Desk Award winner Jan Maxwell (Coram Boy, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang), Peter Maloney (Almost An Evening, Dinner At Eight), Michael McCarty (Mary Poppins), two-time Obie Award winner Kristine Nielsen (Les Liaisons Dangereuses, MTC's Our Leading Lady), Brandon Perler (Broadway debut), David Rasche (Burn After Reading, MTC's Regrets Only), Rocco Sisto (Iphigenia 2.0), Jimmy Smagula (Damn Yankees at Encores!), and Marina Squerciati (MTC's Beauty of the Father).

The creative team for TO BE OR NOT TO BE includes: Anna Louizos (scenic design), Gregg Barnes (costume design), Howell Binkley (lighting design), Darron L West (sound design), Wendall and Zak (projection design), Josh Marquette (hair design), and David Caparelliotis (casting).

Under the leadership of Artistic Director Lynne Meadow and Executive Producer Barry Grove, MTC has become one of the country's most prominent and prestigious theatre companies. MTC productions have earned a total of 16 Tony Awards and five Pulitzer Prizes, an accomplishment unparalleled by a New York theatrical institution. Renowned MTC productions include Top Girls; From Up Here; Come Back, Little Sheba; The Receptionist; LoveMusik; Blackbird; Translations; Shining City; Rabbit Hole; Doubt; Proof; Kimberly Akimbo; The Tale of the Allergist's Wife; Love! Valour! Compassion!; Sylvia; Four Dogs and a Bone; Putting It Together; Lips Together, Teeth Apart; Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune; Crimes of the Heart; and Ain't Misbehavin'.

This season, MTC's Broadway stage was renamed the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street). The landmarked theatre has been the institution's home on Broadway since 2003 and was rehabilitated by MTC following a two-year, $35 million capital campaign. In addition, MTC operates two theatres at New York City Center (131 West 55th Street), its Off-Broadway home since 1984.

For more information on Manhattan Theatre Club, please visit www.ManhattanTheatreClub.com.

You can subscribe to MTC by calling (212) 399-3030, Monday - Friday, noon - 8 PM, with a major credit card. Subscriptions are available online at www.ManhattanTheatreClub.com.

TICKET INFORMATION:
Via Telecharge.com: Single tickets to TO BE OR NOT TO BE are available via Telecharge.com by telephone at (212) 239-6200, (800) 432-7250 outside the NY metro area and online at Telecharge.com. For group ticket information, call (800) 432-7780.
Via the Samuel J. Friedman Box Office: Tickets are available at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre box office (261 West 47th Street, between Broadway and 8th Avenue). Tickets range in price from $56.50-$96.50. Student rush tickets are available the day of the performance at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre box office for $26.50.
MTC Subscriptions: You can subscribe to MTC by calling (212) 399-3030, Monday - Friday, noon - 8 PM, with a major credit card. Subscriptions are available online at www.ManhattanTheatreClub.com.

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE
THROUGH SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 28: Tuesday at 7 PM, Wednesday through Saturday at 8 PM, Sunday at 7 PM. Matinees on Saturday and Sunday at 2 PM.
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 29 - SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23: Tuesday at 7 PM, Wednesday through Saturday at 8 PM. Matinees on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday at 2 PM.

www.ManhattanTheatreClub.com